The Patient Resource Core will serve each project within the MCRC for Rheumatic Diseases in African-Americans, as well as other MCRC investigators interested in the study of scleroderma (SSc) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The overall objective of the Patient Resource Core is to serve MCRC investigators as a resource of patients and biological samples, upon which ongoing and future clinical research will be conducted. As specific aims the Core will: (1) facilitate the recruitment and retention of African-American patients with SSc and SLE for proposed and future clinical research projects under the umbrella of the MCRC; (2) provide MCRC investigators a source of clinically well characterized SSc and SLE patients for the performance of clinical research; and (3) serve as a repository of biological specimens (blood cells and serum, dermal and lung fibroblasts, urine and renal tissue, bronehoalveolar lavage fluid and cells) for research conducted by MCRC investigators. The availability of clinical data and biological samples for a large population of understudied African-American patients with SSc and SLE is a unique feature of this Core.